The college-football season is barely a month old, but it has already delivered its share of angst and aggravation.

With September nearly over, 111 of the sport's 128 schools have already suffered at least one loss, delivering an early blitz to the hopes of their fans, coaches and players.

But 17 schools stand undefeated. Among those that remain on course for a perfect season are 14 major-conference teams, with more than half coming from the nation's two deepest outfits, the Southeastern Conference and Pac-12.

The other three unbeatens include two independents (Notre Dame and Brigham Young) and Marshall, the sole undefeated team from a non-power conference (Conference USA).

Some of these schools won't be undefeated for long. Five of the remaining unbeatens reside in the SEC West, which is starting to look like a band of Viking berserkers packed into a phone booth. The inevitable bloodbath begins Saturday, when third-ranked Alabama visits No. 11 Ole Miss and sixth-ranked Texas A&M travels to No. 12 Mississippi State.

Others, including Florida State, Baylor and Oklahoma, look like they could keep their flawless records for some time yet. And then there are those who have no business even getting this far undefeated. (We're looking at you, Arizona.)

Of course, surviving September without a loss is no guarantee of a great season. Last year, 20 teams were undefeated by the end of September, but nine of them didn't even finish the season in the Associated Press's top-25 poll.

In college football, it pays to remember that perfect is often a relative term. Some 4-0 starts don't count for nearly as much as others, and often an unbeaten record at the end of September is actually hiding some serious imperfections.

With that in mind, here is how we classify the 17 undefeated teams.

Close to perfection

Not every team in this category can finish the season unbeaten. In addition to the four SEC West teams attempting to tear each other apart, Oregon hosts UCLA on Oct. 11, and Florida State travels to Notre Dame later in the season.

But based on what we've seen so far, these eight teams look capable of running the table. In part, that is because almost all of them have already put a signature win over a ranked opponent on their résumé.

Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and UCLA have each beaten ranked opponents on the road, while Alabama and Oregon won home games against Florida and Michigan State, respectively, with a combined winning margin of 40 points.

On the surface, Florida State's narrow home win over Clemson wouldn't necessarily qualify here—especially since the Seminoles crushed the same opponent by 37 points on the road last season. But Florida State was without quarterback Jameis Winston in that game (he was suspended for using an obscene phrase on campus) and still pulled out a gutsy win.

The only exception is Oklahoma, whose early-season schedule has been about as treacherous as navigating a cruise ship through a puddle. But we're giving the Sooners the benefit of the doubt based on last season's surprising Sugar Bowl defeat of Alabama. We'll see if it's justified as early as Saturday, when Oklahoma faces No. 25 TCU on the road.

Still have something to prove

Baylor, BYU, Marshall, Ole Miss, TCU

Baylor, Ole Miss and TCU suffer from the fact that they have played no one of note.

Baylor has looked downright formidable—the Bears rank No. 1 nationally in total offense and sixth in total defense. But it's hard to get too excited about those numbers when their early-season schedule has been softer than a crème caramel.

Ole Miss allowed both Boise State and Memphis to hang around into the fourth quarter before pulling out late wins, while TCU has yet to prove that it has an offense to match its standout defense.

Marshall and BYU both have realistic chances to run the table, but even that likely won't be enough to qualify either for the inaugural College Football Playoff.

Unbeaten but far from perfect

Nebraska, Notre Dame

These two blue bloods have made perfect starts, but haven't always looked convincing in doing so.

Nebraska looked shaky early on, sneaking past McNeese State on a last-second touchdown. The Cornhuskers have improved lately, but questions persist over a defense that remains vulnerable to big plays.

Notre Dame has looked solid but appears to lack a standout unit. The Irish don't rank in the top-40 nationally in either offense or defense.

This won't last long

Arizona, Georgia Tech

The standings show these teams are 4-0, and you can't argue with an unbeaten record. But if you could, this is where you'd start.

Not only have Arizona and Georgia Tech feasted on some cupcake opponents—they have each faced just a single major-conference foe—they've almost choked in doing so.

The Wildcats struggled to get past Texas-San Antonio and Nevada before sneaking out a wild win over California on a last-second Hail Mary. They're unlikely to find Saturday's visit to Oregon as forgiving.

Georgia Tech has trailed in every game this season, including a near-catastrophic loss to Georgia Southern, in which the Yellow Jackets surrendered 28 straight second-half points and needed a last-minute touchdown pass to eke out a win.